DVD Review - Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You In Time

With Trent Reznor cleaned up for good (hopefully), 2005's With Teeth and his touring to support it announced that NIN is not only back, but they're here to stay, and they have never been better. Backed by IMO, his best handpicked assembled band yet of drummer Josh Freese, guitarist Aaron North, bassist/guitarist Jeordie White and Keyboardist/Guitarist Alessandro Cortini.

One of the things I love about NIN is that as long as Trent wants to keep it going, they will never break up. Or as a friend put, they break up after every tour. The band member roulette seems to change every tour, which is good and bad. Bad in that we, as fans, have come to love the then-current members and seeing new ones just seem strange. Good in that the new members bring a new quality to the band, and in essence help keep NIN fresh by introducing their own unique sound and sensibilities. As Trent has said, he would never bring in the best technical player for each position, instead picking those who are multi-talented and fit in with the band the best. I mean, Eric Clapton is a fantastic guitarist, one of the greatest of all-time, but he would never fit in with Nine Inch Nails. Although, come to think of it, I would pay mucho dinero to see Clapton and Reznor live together.

As evidenced through this live DVD, Trent Reznor is now over 40 years old and exudes an energy onstage that many musicians half his age can barely muster. He is truly a sight to see. As much of a master of music that he is, and as quietly spoken he seems to be in many interviews, when he walks onstage, he becomes a monster. No longer dressed in fishnets and drenched with corn starch, Reznor also ditched his longer locks for the short shaven look with a sleeveless tops that show off his enormous muscular arms. As he said, if you can't do drugs, what else can you do? Lift weights apparently, and a lot of them at that.

What I love about the new Trent is new fearlessness towards playing many songs of NIN's expansive back catalogue that have never been tackled, for various reasons. Perhaps inspired by his new band, the newest incarnation of NIN has spiced up old favorites while also playing new favorites that have never been played live before. And this all brings us to NIN's latest release, the live performance, Beside You In Time. This is a great document of NIN at their greatest.

Those are some of my general thoughts, so here are some song-specific thoughts:

1. Love Is Not Enough - fantastic show opener with the band behind a veiled curtain so that we barely see their shadows. Love Is Not Enough is one of those NIN songs that is so good live that I can't stand listening to the album version anymore.

2. You Know What You Are? - anyone who can play the drums on this song and not have their arms fall off is a God, and Josh Freese shows off his deity-ness with this track. The performance of this song is one of the true highlights on a disc filled with them.

3. Terrible Lie - this has been one of my personal faves since I first saw them perform it live. I don't think they've ever done a show where they haven't played this song, and they've been touring since 1989. And yet, it never gets old. Like all the material off Pretty Hate Machine, the song is completely transformed into a new monster live.

4. The Line Begins To Blur - this was one of those songs I thought would translate horribly live, mainly because its got a relentless bassline throughout the whole song, and bass translate very iffy live sometimes. But I'll be damned if the live version kicks all kinds of awesome. Favorite part: "I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW!"

5. March of the Pigs - one of their live staples, always a crowdpleaser. Trent is all over the place and Aaron is all over the arena literally, jumping into the crowd at one point.

6. Something I Can Never Have - I'm so glad they decided to put this back into their set after it was pretty much "retired" since their Downward Spiral tours in 94/95. It might not have the same resonance as Hurt, but it sure comes close, and I know many who will argue it has more.

7. Closer - I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the new live version of this song is incredible. Absolutely love the insertion of "The Only Time" at the end.

8. Burn - Like Something I Can Never Have, was brought out of retirement, and kicks all kinds of ass. Sometimes you just need to take something away so that its return is that much sweeter.

9. Gave Up - Another live staple, and just shows how tight NIN's live show truly is.

Now comes what many call "The Eye of the Storm" part of many NIN concerts, where we get several slower songs in between the chaos and mayhem, accompanied by a video projection.

10. Eraser - another one of those oldies but goodies brought back to their live setlist. Probably my favorite track off The Downward Spiral (but really, there isn't a song on that album that isn't).

11. Right Where It Belongs - every NIN album always has that one emotional song that always hits you right where it hurts and really takes you to a sad place. Pretty Hate Machine had Something I Can Never Have, Downward Spiral had Hurt, The Fragile had The Great Below, and With Teeth has this. As if it wasn't sad enough already, the video projection shows us a montage of poverty and suffering contrasted with the image of George W. Bush happily dancing with his wife. Trent has never been very political before, but the current situation with Bush, with the Iraq War and his handling of Hurricane Katrina/New Orleans situation (Trent's old hometown), he just couldn't stand it anymore and had to make a statement. I applaud him for it and agree with him 100%. And if you thought this was all the socio-political commentary Trent had in him, then you haven't been following the commotion around his upcoming album, Year Zero.

12. Beside You In Time - one of visual highlights of the show. As well as it is captured on this DVD, this really had to be seen live for full impact. Love the glass breaking. Exit the video projection, and the Storm resumes.

13. With Teeth - the title track of his 2005 release is one of my favorites from that album. I love that quiet middle part with just the piano and distorted guitar, and live, its easier to hear than the album version which makes you turn up the volume only to be bombarded by the subsequent guitar riffs. I never thought it would be possible, but Trent makes playing the tambourine look cool. He doesn't really play it, its more like he attacks it.

14. Wish - another crowdpleaser that has the crowd on the verge of rioting. Josh Freese's drumming on this song was one of the reasons he really won me over after replacing NIN's old drummer Jerome Dillon. (Let's forget about Alex Carapetis....)

15. Only - manages to sound very different than the album version, but remains very cool nonetheless. So good live, they've got it on this disc twice! The visuals in this song are captured well and really show off how detailed this DVD looks.

16. The Big Come Down - this performance absolutely rocks. I can and have watched this dozens of times......(Leaves to go watch it again).

17. Hurt - another of the live staples, and emotional highpoints. Despite the sad subject matter, this is such a beautiful song, sung beautifully by Trent alone with a keyboard, with the rest of the band joining in the final verse. I love it when the crowd sings along, but please please stop the handclapping. Trent is up there pouring his heart out and you clap your hands? Seriously, stop it. Only clap when Trent wants you to, like in...

18. The Hand That Feeds - Another big F.U. to George Bush, and also a great song to bang your head to. You may clap your hands during this song if you wish.

19. Head Like A Hole - If Wish had the crowd on the verge of rioting, then Head Like A Hole is a full scale riot. NIN leaves us on a high, higher than any drug can give us, and like most drugs leave us wanting more. For the live crowd, that its for the night, but for us home viewers, there's more!

Among the additional content on Beside You In Time:

5 songs from their North American Summer Tour in 2006:

1. Somewhat Damaged - hearing this song live was such an unexpected treat. I'll never forget that moment, as it was both unexpected in terms of the song, and in terms of the moment, as the house lights were still on. Out of all the songs NIN has opened with, this is probably my favorite.

2. Closer - the very definition of a crowdpleaser. Love the accompanying visuals, especially the part where it looks like the red liquid is pouring over Trent through the grate, but fills up as soon as leaves it.

3. Help Me I Am In Hell - like Somewhat Damaged, this was an unexpected but very welcome surprise when I saw them live last summer. Played with a very trippy accompanying video projection.

4. Non-Entity - It was so great to hear this live, and even better to have it here. Great song, great visuals.

5. Only - so good they have it twice, and I gotta say I like this version better than the Winter Tour version. Much trippier visuals.

Music Videos for The Hand That Feeds and Only - interesting how Trent seems to alternate making music videos that are basic-performance-only (The Hand That Feeds) and high-concept-driven-more-complex (Only). Another good example that typifies the uniqueness and diversity of Nine Inch Nails.

Live Performances from Rehearsals of Love Is Not Enough, The Collector and Every Day Is Exactly The Same - must've been from early 2005 cuz Trent was still sporting hair and Jerome was still on drums!

While their last live release contained some great easter eggs, I have searched high and low, and alas there are none of this release. Disappointing, sure, but we sure got our moneys worth for this great little package.

The video quality on this DVD is amazing, shot on professional quality High Definition cameras, you can really tell, even on the DVD, I can't wait to see what the hi-def versions look like. Despite the frenetic lights and obviously difficult material to translate onto digital formats, the video quality really shines. Hardly any compression artifacts to note, all fit onto 1 disc with extras and both DTS and Dolby 5.1. As much as I love NIN's previous live release, And All That Could Have Been, the disc break in the middle of the performance really hurt it. The video quality on the additional content is not up to the standards of the main feature, but they were shot on handheld consumer level high definition cameras. But the band felt the material warranted inclusion despite the lower video quality.

Sound quality is also up there, presented in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 Surround, and a proper Stereo track for those without surround capabilities. Trent Reznor is a master musician who has done stuff in plain stereo that amazes. So you can only imagine how great this disc sounds in 5.1 surround sound. One of the aural highlights is hearing Jeordie play live bass on many songs where bass hasn't been played before in previous NIN tours is just incredible, it adds so much to the songs.

Big Kudos to whoever it is who priced the DVD/HD DVD/Blu Ray, because the DVD is about half the cost of the average new release, and the HiDef releases are also both really affordable, costing less than most standard DVD new releases.

Big Middle Finger to whoever it is who decided to delay the HD DVD and Blu Ray versions of Beside You In Time a week after the DVD in Canada. New Album on Apr. 17, tickets to see em live in Japan in May, A North American tour or two probably sometime in the Fall, and Year Zero followup in 2008? Has there ever been a better time to be a NIN fan? I don't think so....

NIN Fans already have this, music fans, this is great demo material not only video and audio-wise, but especially performance and music-wise.